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Warner, Dame Marina

Dame Dame Marina

Elected: 1984

Image credit: Edward Park

Marina Warner is a novelist, short-story writer, historian and mythographer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism, myth and fairy tales. Her award-winning books include Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (1982), From the Beast to the Blonde (1994), Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights (2011), and Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (2014). In 1994 she gave the BBC Reith Lectures on the theme of ‘Six Myths of Our Time’. Her third novel, The Lost Father (1988), was shortlisted for the Booker prize, and in 2000 The Leto Bundle was longlisted. She has curated exhibitions, including ‘The Inner Eye’ (1996), ‘Metamorphing’ (2002-3), and ‘Only Make-Believe: Ways of Playing’ (2005). She was Chair of the Man Booker International Prize for 2015. Marina has written for many publications and is a contributing editor to The London Review of Books. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Marina was elected a Fellow of the RSL in 1984, made CBE in 2008 and DBE in 2015. She is a recipient of the Holberg Prize, in 2015. In 2016, she began, with colleagues in Sicily, the project www.StoriesinTransit.org,  on story-making workshops with young people, mostly arrivants. Her new book, Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir, will be published in 2021.

More of our Fellows

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Fellowship Election Process​

Fellows are nominated by peers and elected by our Council of writers – our governing Board. Being elected a Fellow of the RSL is a lifetime honour. This role gives them the opportunity to support other writers, readers and the future of literature. The RSL connects writers in the Fellowship to one another, and to a wider readership.

Fellowship Election Process​

Fellows are nominated by peers and elected by our Council of writers – our governing Board. Being elected a Fellow of the RSL is a lifetime honour. This role gives them the opportunity to support other writers, readers and the future of literature. The RSL connects writers in the Fellowship to one another, and to a wider readership.